Former Jet Airways chief promoter Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita were offloaded from Emirates flight and were barred from leaving India. The duo was recalled from the flight which already had reached the taxiway and was preparing for take-off from the Mumbai International Airport.
As per the government sources, a lookout circular (LOC) had been issued by the Serious Frauds Investigation Office (SFIO), under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), as per a November 2018 home ministry notification giving powers to public sector banks to prevent willful defaulters and fraudsters from fleeing the country. Officials in the government said the SFIO and the Enforcement Directorate had launched a probe against Jet.
The Boeing 777 aircraft, with the Goyals among 371 people on board, was about to depart for Dubai, said an air traffic control official. “It began taxiing, but then, we received a call from immigration authorities asking us to call the aircraft back. They said there was an immigration issue.’’ the official added. The passengers would have barely settled in, when the Goyals seated in the second row of the Emirates first class cabin were asked to deplane. The Goyals would have landed in Dubai in three hours had the aircraft not been called back, where a limousine, which is part of the Emirates first class service, was booked to ferry them from the airport to their penthouse residence in Dubai Marina. “Their bags were checked-in only up to Dubai,’’ said an airport source. However, another official said that they were travelling to London. If so, they had probably planned to break their journey in Dubai.
On March 2, 2016, Vijay Mallya, whose Kingfisher Airlines reportedly owed banks £900 million, left the country for London on a Jet flight - triggering a political firestorm and setting in motion protracted extradition proceedings in the UK.
As for the 25-year old Jet, which "temporarily" suspended flight operations on April 17, it owes over £700 million to nine Indian banks led by State Bank of India which has a £160 million exposure. Officials in the government said the SFIO and the Enforcement Directorate had launched a probe against Jet.
Diversion of funds?
According to information, the couple was asked to get off the flight on the basis of an alert as the Enforcement Directorate is looking into Goyal's case since the grounded carrier owes £900 million to the lenders. While ED had earlier begun looking at Abu Dhabi carrier Ethihad's investment into the company that ran Jet's frequent flyer programme to possible violation of FDI norms, the agency is now investigating if funds were routed out of the grounded airline
The MCA is yet to decide on ordering a probe by the SFIO, although an investigation by the Registrar of Companies is said to have found lapses, a news agency had reported recently.
